Meeting Community Needs Led to a Successful Service-Based Business
Rosario Marquez loves to help people. Sometimes, when she goes to bed, she can’t sleep, thinking about all the problems she could solve for others. That restless compassion has driven the Des Moines resident to become an ordained minister, medical translator and now insurance broker, transforming community needs into career opportunities.
For Marquez, entrepreneurship isn’t about building wealth — it’s about filling gaps in services that leave vulnerable populations behind. “Interpreting allowed me to see the community that is most vulnerable,” she says. “Being able to help them was a great feeling.” Now, 30 years after arriving in the United States, she’s turned that service-first mindset into a thriving insurance brokerage that serves everyone from elderly Latinos to Burmese immigrants.
From Ministry to Medical Translation
Her pattern of identifying needs and filling them started years ago. When she went to the Polk County courthouse looking for someone to marry her friend in the language of her culture-in a community with a growing Spanish-speaking population, she couldn’t find one. How did she solve the problem? She did her research and became an ordained minister.
A similar situation arose in health care. When she found herself at the hospital with her sick husband she noticed a shortage of medical translators. Kids and other adults translated for some of the patients, but many did not have someone they trusted to translate for them. She knew how it felt to feel alone and desperate in a place where no one spoke your language. Once again she took action.
This time, the solution required more extensive training. She began teaching herself professional translation skills and became a medical translator. She never saw that as a job, but as a public service to the community that so desperately needed it. The patients needed the service, but so did the doctors who needed help understanding their patients’ needs. Translation between languages was not enough; they also needed someone to explain the patients’ culture.
Navigating the Pandemic and Finding New Purpose
Then came an unexpected challenge: the COVID-19 pandemic. Marquez suddenly found herself furloughed from her interpreting job. Sitting at home during a pandemic was difficult when hospitals were ground zero and people were restless and scared. She looked for a way to help while supporting herself and her family.
The answer came when a friend recommended that she apply to be a Medicare insurance agent. Marquez knew nothing about Medicare, but she needed a job that kept her mind busy, so she did the training. It opened her eyes to a new way of helping.
Working in insurance fulfilled Marquez. “I realized the challenge that the elderly population, and especially Latinos, have in understanding what to do for retirement. I love to educate them on the process and help them make an informed decision.”
In March 2025, she became an insurance broker and opened True Car Insurance. “I can help more people,” explains Marquez.
Expanding Impact as an Insurance Broker
The transition to broker significantly expanded her impact. A broker has more products to offer. Besides Medicare, they can sell life insurance, dental, retirement planning and annuities. A broker can also work with different companies to build custom product packages based on the needs of each individual. Now, Marquez helps more than the Latino community; she also serves the Burmese community. Like Latinos, many of them work beyond 65 years of age and are often ignored within the insurance industry. Marquez reaches out to educate them about financial planning, assisting clients as far as Nebraska and Illinois.
Lifelong Learning and Self-Care
When Marquez is not helping, she is learning. When she arrived in the United States, she did not wait for someone to teach her English, she taught herself. That’s her approach with her business, too.
As an independent broker, she can no longer keep up with the bookkeeping on her own, so she hired an accountant. It comes as no surprise that she likes to sit down with her as she explains what she is doing so Marquez can learn about accounting. She doesn’t stop with her business; Marquez is also learning to take care of herself.
There have been sleepless nights, hungry days, 24/7 calls from clients and minimal self-care while trying to resolve other people’s problems. Now, she turns off her work cellphone on weekends, goes on walks and listens to music. She is practicing slowing down to appreciate the fruits of her labor.
Every Fourth of July, she celebrates her arrival in the United States 30 years ago and the life she has built by turning her instinct to help others into sustainable career opportunities. Her advice for other jefas is simple: “Sometimes fear paralyzes us. We need to believe in something. Make a decision and be the one” to take action. For Marquez, sleepless nights worrying about others and problem-solving for her community became the foundation of a business built on service. Her journey is a reminder that the best solutions often come from a heart to serve.
